Competition for foundation grants is heating up. The adoption of AI tools has led many nonprofits to increase the volume (though not necessarily the quality) of grant applications they submit each year. At the same time, dramatic cuts in federal funding have led more nonprofits to seek foundation grants to fill revenue holes and to diversify revenue streams in ways they may never before have been forced to do.
Research released by the Center for Effective Philanthropy in November 2025 illustrates the pressure. Among foundation leaders surveyed, 87% reported increased demand for funding in 2025. Only 30% reported increasing their payout beyond what they had originally planned for that year. For small nonprofits, that gap between rising demand and additional funding makes a focused grants strategy especially important.
In a message to applicants, the Massachusetts-based Cummings Foundation reported receiving a record 1,017 letters of inquiry (LOIs). Hats off to this foundation, which has increased its giving levels in recent years. It noted that the growing applicant pool reflected increasing needs across local communities.
When we take these sector-wide trends and apply them to small nonprofits, the picture gets substantially bleaker. Small teams are already trying to fit grant writing around everything else needed to keep their organizations running.
With even more competition, and the deck already stacked against you, how can a small nonprofit win in the grants game?
While it’s important to know what the trends and data are telling us (which lands somewhere between 😬 and 😫), there are two key actions any nonprofit—but especially the small ones—can take to stand out and strengthen their applications:
1. Hone and Perfect Your Unique Voice and Story
Every nonprofit organization comes to the table with a unique story to tell. To stand out, you must learn to inhabit and articulate your “voice” as an organization.
I know that sounds a bit trite, but your voice and your story are truly some of your nonprofit superpowers. In a world in which more nonprofit leaders are pressed to apply for grants — and more and more are relying on AI to generate the content needed to support that higher volume of applications — your unique voice and story can pull you out of a crowded pack.
But what does that mean in real terms?
It means, first and foremost, not writing in isolation. Take the time—whether in a board or staff meeting, a short series of phone calls with volunteers, or even a single, informal focus group—to get the pulse of the organization. Ask open-ended questions like:
- What inspires you about our organization?
- What made you want to get involved and what keeps you coming back?
- What do you think makes our organization stand out from other similar nonprofits?
- Why does what we do matter? And how do we know it matters?
- Are we the same nonprofit we were when we first began? What has changed and evolved over the years?
These are simple conversation starters. But rarely do nonprofits, especially those that are several years or even decades in, take the time to step back and reflect on who they are today. Just a few conversations with folks who are invested in what you do will help you begin to pull out key themes. From those themes, you will naturally start to see the “voice” of your organization emerge.
Once you are grounded in the voice of your organization, your task as a writer becomes explaining to the reader (the grant reviewer) both what makes you special and unique as well as how you fit into — and strengthen — your community more broadly.
This is the part that most nonprofits miss. It’s tempting to lean into your unique voice and story with so much force that your narrative can read like a navel-gazing exercise. Of course, every nonprofit is special and stands on its own. But what a foundation reviewer wants to know is not only what makes your organization special, but how investing in your organization will “ripple out” into the larger world and create lasting change.
This is where your partnerships come in. Almost every successful nonprofit has close partnerships with other nonprofits, local or regional companies, volunteers, government agencies, community groups, and more.
When you have strong partnerships in place, the actions you take to serve your community have the chance to go even further. A client who comes to you may, through actions you initiate, be served by many others, contributing to something much bigger and more holistic than any single organization could achieve on its own.
One thing we’ve noticed over the past decade of serving nonprofit clients is that many leaders shy away from describing partnerships in great detail, even those that are vital to their organization’s success. Perhaps there’s an underlying fear that highlighting another organization will steal some of your own shine in a grant application.
But remember that most foundations think about grants as investments. Showing the depth and richness of partnerships strengthens your case for investment and doesn’t undermine it.
Pulling your story, priorities, and partnerships into a Case for Support gives you something to build from each time you apply. For help getting started, see You Found the Right Funders, Now What?
2. Focus on Less, Not More
The data and sector trends are telling us that competition for grants is greater than ever. So the answer on an individual organization level should be to apply for more grants, right?
Wrong. Grants are not a volume game. A focused approach gives you the time to make each application stronger.
Most small nonprofits do not have a fully staffed fundraising team in-house. In many cases, it’s a solo shop, or at most a handful of committed folks who all do a little bit of everything.
Increasing the volume of grant applications you submit as a small nonprofit will not necessarily lead to more revenue, but it can very easily lead to:
- Overwhelm
- Frustration
- Increasingly generic applications
- Decline after decline
The way to stand out is to find the right funders to spend your precious time applying to—and not waste your time on those you aren’t likely to receive funding from. My dream for every small nonprofit would be to have a grants calendar in which you submit no more than 1–2 applications per month, and for many organizations, even fewer than that.
If you’re wondering where to find those funders, our #1 research hack for small nonprofits is a good place to start.
When you focus on foundations that are well-aligned with your mission (and ideally, the geographic region you serve and the populations you care about), and have a history of funding organizations like yours, you give yourself key competitive advantages:
- Time: You give yourself back your single most precious asset. By pursuing fewer foundation grants, you can give yourself the time you need to write exceptionally good applications.
- Connection: Foundations that have a proven history of funding similar organizations and are aligned with your mission are more likely to want to hear from you directly.
When you mix time and connection together, you can envision a manageable grants calendar (1–2/month) that actually allows you the space to reach out to prospective foundations by phone and email both before submitting an application and after you hear back. Follow each foundation’s guidelines on contact, of course. For more on making outreach part of the process, see Outreach Is No Longer Optional in Grant Seeking.
And this brings us back to your story. The time you reclaim by pursuing fewer grants is time you can spend having those conversations with your team, describing the partnerships that make your work stronger, and helping the right funders understand why it matters.
We can’t make the competition disappear. But we can stop letting it dictate an ever-longer grants calendar. Your organization has a story worth telling. Give yourself the time to tell it well, and be choosy about who you’re telling it to.
About Page Consulting Group
Page Consulting Group helps nonprofits secure foundation funding through a proven three-phase process grounded in research, strategy, and execution.
We bring senior-level expertise and real client experience to help small and mid-sized nonprofits build grant approaches that are clear, focused, and sustainable.
Have questions about your organization’s grants strategy? Contact us to schedule a free introductory conversation, or email [email protected].